Abuse of Sundarbans uninhabited lands soon to be taken care of

Kolkata: The exploitation of uninhabited islands of the Sundarbans by anti-national elements and the need for comprehensive mapping of the area was discussed at length at a meeting of defence and security agencies here on Friday.

The issue cropped up at the second annual lead intelligence agency conference for stakeholders of West Bengal and Odisha at the headquarters, Coast Guard Region (Northeast). The Indian Coast Guard is the lead intelligence agency for coastal borders and the coordinating agency for coastal security.

With 48 of the 102 islands in the Sundarbans uninhabited, the exploitation of such islands by the anti-national elements was deliberated upon by the agencies which included navy, army, Central Industrial Security Force, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, besides the Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau, Border Security Force, National Security Guards and Coastal Police.

Comprehensive mapping of Sundarbans and augmentation of Marine Police for an effective surveillance also came up during the talks.

The conference focussed on hammering out the hurdles for forming the formidable Intelligence Network in both the states for an integrated seamless flow of information among central and state agencies, a Coast Guard release said.

The vulnerabilities owing to reasons of topography and riverine patches along India-Bangladesh borders was one of the most key agenda of the conference.

The porous nature of the border in the recent past has led to numerous trans-border problems including infiltration, smuggling of arms and contraband goods, and illegal movement into West Bengal. (IANS)

Two people arrested in Assam for cannabis transportation. wikimedia commons

Kolkata, Dec 26, 2017: About 583 kg of dry cannabis was seized and two persons were arrested in Assam, an official from the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) said here on Tuesday.

“With support of the Border Security Force (BSF), the DRI officials of Silchar intercepted a truck at Badarpurghat area of Cachar and recovered 583.7 kg of dry cannabis packed in 58 packets, which were hidden inside a specially-built cavity at the back of the driver’s cabin,” the official said.

The driver and the handyman of the truck — Narayan Chandra Sarkar and Kalidas Munda, both hailing from Agartala — were arrested and the truck was also seized.

According to the official, the contraband was coming from Agartala and was bound for Shillong.

“The case indicates that the northeast continues to be the sensitive zone for production of cannabis, from where it is being transported to different parts of India by the drug syndicates,” a statement said.

This is third major seizure of ganja in such huge quantity by the agency in less than four months.